Diane Israel smiles as she recounts the story of one of her training days with all-time great Scott Molina back in the early 1980s, when she was helping establish Boulder as a center of the triathlon world.

This was an epic training day, one that locals still talk about when discussion turns to tough training.

It started out with a masters swim workout with Jane Scott, sister of six-time Ironman champ Dave Scott. One swim workout was followed by another, and after swimming 6,000 yards, Israel and Molina toweled off, jumped on their bicycles and rode to Colorado Springs. They got lost along the way somewhere past Castle Rock, arriving at night after roughly 150 miles of cycling.

After unloading and grabbing a few hours of sleep, the two ran to the top of Pikes Peak and back down, competing in the annual Pikes Peak Marathon.

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And what to do after finishing the race? Ride back to Boulder, of course. That they did, and on the long haul back, somewhere in the dark night near Golden along U.S. 93, Molina -- nicknamed "The Terminator" -- started bonking.

Indeed, "totally spent" is an appropriate way to sum up Israel's meteoric athletic career. It was not uncommon for her to put in 10-hour training days. She was so driven to be the best in the world that in order to save time, she blended all her food.

Two weeks after their epic training day, Israel and Molina competed in the World's Toughest Triathlon in Lake Tahoe, Calif. Molina won, but Israel understandably was still tired and placed third -- excellent, but not good enough -- in what was to be the motif of her athletic career.

"I left my race in my training," she explained. "I did that all the time. It was an excuse for me not to do well and not be as great as I could be."

There was a reason for this "fear of success," as she puts it, a fear of being the best she could be. A reason to overtrain and succumb to eating disorders. Israel was training, training and training so she would be "numb" to the pain and trauma she experienced growing up. The trauma included a history of abuse, dealing with a learning disability, a mentally ill mother, a developmentally disabled brother and a sexual assault.

"I was No. 1 in the world in overtraining and under-eating," she said. "There is a lot of that in Boulder."

Israel followed that path for eight years, inviting the best triathletes in the world to come stay at her house, nicknamed "Camp Israel," and train with her. She rode and ran the roads and trails with the best until, one day, it all ended.

Israel collapsed along a road during a training session. At 28, her athletic career was over.

"In that moment I knew I would never be capable of pushing myself again," said Israel, 53. "It took me 10 years to recover from the chronic fatigue and exhaustion and to face what was important to me."

After her forced retirement, Israel, whose passion is the environment, volunteered for the Sierra Club. She went on to earn a master's degree from Naropa University and has a thriving psychotherapy practice.

Now, she and Naropa graduate student and local psychotherapist Karolina Walsh have teamed up to produce a series on "The Athlete's Journey," detailing how athletes can live in the present, face their traumas and grow from those experiences.

Walsh and Israel will talk about that journey Aug. 29 after a showing of Israel's film "Beauty Mark," which explores our culture's focus on youth and a certain notion of beauty. The good news, Walsh said, is that "you can heal from trauma." And not only heal, but grow in a way to offer wisdom and help for others who experience wounds.

"Many runners use our running to cope with difficult childhoods," Israel said. "Many are out of balance. When we just stop and feel, we can learn as we age that 'I will be OK; I can heal; I can make it through.'"

Israel now embraces the "exuberance of life." She seems to have left her ego out there on the road when she crashed and burned. She is willing to help others simply because she has, said marathoner Jon Pratt, "an open heart."

"We love Diane," pro triathlete Amanda Lovato said Sunday. "When we came to the area, she let us stay in her house," which is the reason she and her fellow pro husband, Michael, now live in Boulder.

Massage therapist David Weil said Israel "understands how exercise can become pathologized, where recovery almost becomes not an option, and where it is more like seeing how much you can push your body and deprive it. It is an invisible disorder that will emerge in the coming years as a major, treatable disorder, and Diane is a big part of it.

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